Cold Hands, Warm Hearts

 MERRY CHRISTMAS YALLL!!! I love you all so much, I'm so grateful for you and the example you all set for me.

PEACH : 
- GINGERBREAD HOUSES! On pday we had a Lil Christmas party, we made some pretty BOMB gingerbread houses ngl! 
- ZONE BLITZ!!!! So funnn!!! Sister mills is a BEAST, is absolutely hilarious! We had too much fun. We also got HARDCORE rejected lots lol. So we decided to get creative and wrap boms and give them out as gifts, people were a lot more receptive that way! We had a couple really cool convos with people! It was a blast! 
- because we couldn't drive too far because of weather this week we had lots more miles than we had planned so we got to go make a few visits at peoples houses for Christmas! 
- on Christmas eve we were kinda down and everything was lowkey dead so we decided to try going to our friends house and it didn't feel right. So we said like 5 prayers till we felt good about a place to go and then as soon as we ended the last prayer I saw a girl crying in her car in my rear view. So we chased her car down( luckily she had just pulled over lol) and we knocked on her window and talked to her for a bit. She was super cool, we gave her hugs and prayed with her and shared a scripture with her it's so cool to see how God has everything mapped out even when we can't see it. 
- Christmas eve w/ the Bowens! It was soooo fun! They called it a "night in Bethlehem" it was so tender! 
- JESUS'S BIRTHDAY!!!! Sooo fun! I got to talk to my family and that was a party! Then we delivered Christmas meals for the crisis center. It was so tender and also heartbreaking. We were at and old folks home and those people would cry when we gave them their meal and would be so thankful. We said prayers with lots of them and just talked to them for a while. It was one of the most humbling experiences I've had. Although Christmas is hard and I miss my family. Seeing peoples faces light up when we talk to them makes it all worth it. I've never felt so much pure and lasting  joyful in my whole life!



PIT: ( all pits are potential peaches)
- it was absolutely FREEZING this week!! Like negatives in humility... no amount of layers will keep you warm enough but hey the spirit keeps ya warmer (-26 degrees to be exact)
- one day we got locked in because of the cold and so we just went crazy for a bit and then decided to wrap copies of the Book of Mormon, do stuff for our neighbors, make the most of it! 

Also imma start a Google photos for my pictures so here's the link : https://photos.app.goo.gl/V1gka56kjUTcATXt8

The Yosts from my home ward were visiting the ward we went to on Christmas Day

Merry Christmas!!

 HOWDY YALLL!! Wowza the past 2 weeks have been bonkers lol. Me and Sister Ritchie were on our death beds for most of it lol so I did not write an email last week. 5 MONTHS AS A MISSIONARY!!! Time flies man! Being a missionary is the best and funniest thing ever but also the hardest, but even in the hard times become funny eventually lol. Now when anything crazy happens I'm just like we'll it'll make my weekly more interesting

Tbh last week was a blur so this emails gonna be confusing sry 

Highlights from last week: 

- WES GOT BAPTIZED!!! Ahhh it was the best, most stressful day of my life 65 people came to Wes's baptism! I had no clue what I was doing but everything went pretty smooth! They had to dunk him a few times though because we didn't fill the font quite high enough for him... sorry Wes he made it all the way under eventually after a few tries! The spirit was SOOO STRONG in that room!! We had him bear his testimony at the end and he made me cry. he talked the still small voice and how his answer wasn't big but it was just as impact full as if it had been. 

- for a service project we got to cut out lots of fabric, it was so fun!!

- we helped a member make molds for his work, it was one of the funnest service projects ever! 

This week: 

Monday- Wednesday = on our death beds lol! Jk jk we just had some weird cold/ flu thing! Let me tell you nothing makes you appreciate being able to breathe more than being sick lol! 

Thursday:  We had a BOMB lesson with a new convert! And then we decided to go know some Apts the elders told us to knock. To spice it up we decided to use a penny to know what door to knock on ( heads= up / right. tails = down/ left.) The first door the magic penny took us to was this super cool  guy, he said we could come back and share a message with him and his girlfriend! So that was super cool! AND THEN!! Our friend who dropped off the face of the earth randomly called us!! He gave us his address and we were able to get him a ride to the activity we had that night! He's a stud! He has a some disabilities and is super close to the spirit! Afterwards he said "I feel Jesus in my heart" 

Friday: SERVICE!!! we got to decorate Christmas trees for the branch president's wife! BEST SERVICE EVER! She's SOO NICE, we helped her make lots of treats/ tried to help lol don't know how much of a help we were my cooking skills are lacking but it was wayy fun! Did make me miss my fam tho  I LOVE YALL SO MUCH AND MISS ALL OF YOU!!  then we had a couple FIRE lessons! It was a way fun day! 

Saturday:

We went around and gave all the workers at the mall candy canes w/ a passalong card! It was wayy fun, it was cool to see how something so small made people so happy! It really doesn't take much to brighten someone's day! We had a lesson after and it was super good! 

Saturday was also a very hard day because it was the 2 year anniversary of my cousin Maddie's death. Those who knew her knew she emulated the savior. I looked up to her so much, words don't begin to describe how much I miss her light in my life. But I know that I will be able to see her again. I felt so close to Maddie that day. I know she's doing an important work on the other side, I'm honored that we get to be missionaries together!  I found joy even when in pain at being able to help others see that they will see their loved ones again as well! mosiah 16:7  "And if Christ had not risen from the dead, or have broken the bands of death that the grave should have no victory, and that death should have no sting, there could have been no resurrection. But there is a resurrection, therefore the grave hath no victory, and the sting of death is swallowed up in Christ. He is the light and the life of the world; yea, a light that is endless, that can never be darkened; yea, and also a life which is endless, that there can be no more death." 

There truly are so many angels around us both on this side of the veil and the other! I'm so grateful for all the angels in my life.

Sunday: 

We decided that we need to go through our teaching pool, lots of them are not interested so now we're on the finding grind so send us prayers and ideas por favor! CHURCH WAS SOOO GOOD!  There were some fire talks. And I've decided that I don't care how hard ysa is I never want to leave! I love these people sooo much, I'm so lucky I've been able to spend the past  3 transfers with them! 

Challenge: 

MAKE SOMEONE SMILE!

Super easy super simple! Share the light of christ with people. It can be as simple as a wave of a compliment. It could be offering service, forgiving someone, sharing the gospel with someone... the possibilities are endless! Pray for inspiration and act of the ideas that come. I promise that as you focus on others instead of yourself you will find true joy, you will have a deeper relationship with the savior as you do what he would do. 

LOVE YOU ALL!! MERRY CHRISTMAS!!  

Smoothies Door Dashed from Mom when your sick- perks of being state side

"Smiling's My Favorite"

 HOWDY YALLL!! Wowza guys I'm so tired lol! This week's been a wild one lol! 

Monday: PDAYYYY! We went and played card games with the Moffatts, it was soo fun! Then we had a huge event for Christmas where they light up all the Christmas lights! It was so fun, we talked to lots of really cool people! Then we had a lesson with our friend Wes, it was so good! 

Tuesday: BEING SICK IS THE WORST! I got hit with some kinda flu... being sick as a missionary is not fun! I have mad respect for the covid missionaries now because I felt like I was going crazy just being inside for a day 

Wednesday: SICK THINGS PT2! Yeah I couldn't sit still long enough to stay inside again so we decided to full send it anyway ( for my sanity lol) don't worry I wasn't contagious and actually felt a lot better once we got out!  We had some member calls, some service, a dinner with a member! 

Thursday: TENDER MERCIES! We drove out to Joplin 1st thing in the morning to meet a referral. Come to find out she lives way too far for us to drive haha. So we did a video call lesson, it was super good! Then we went and got our car fixed then had a lesson w/ an inactive. We had a few member calls and they were so good! Ahhh I love the ysa they are the best ever! We had a lesson with Wes whose on date. A few weeks ago we promised him that if he read the Book of Mormon every day for 5 minutes that he would know it's true by the end of the month. Well we had our lesson with him on the 1st and he said that he got his answer the previous night!!! He's on date for the 11th! 

Friday: ZONE BLITZ! I've been waiting and praying for them to come blitz Carthage! A blitz is where all the missionaries in our zone go finding in an area all day. We were able to find so many people! It was sooo fun! Also so rewind lol we go to Walmart a lot for finding haha! But apparently this guy saw us and remember how he felt when he saw us! Fast forward some sisters were in the parking lot and he stopped them and asked them to tell them more about Alma haha! He said one of the missionaries gave him a Book of Mormon and he read it and knows its true. He told the sisters that he had seen us around and knows people who are members. He said we have a "light" and are just happy and he wants that too. He's family ward so now the family ward sisters are going to start teaching him! Super cool! 

Saturday: I'M DUMB! We joke how Sister Ritchie and I take turns sharing a brain cell and this week I definitely didn't have it) LOL...  We decided it seemed like a great day to go finding at Pitt state, they were having a festival for the church so we were like bet, let's go! I did not realize that 1. it was a Saturday so campus was closed and 2. the festival was a non proselyte event. We made the most of it and went finding anyway. We got rejected hard-core and I was not in the mood lol! But we listed to some Nik Day to hype us up and we went into the dollar general. Which is where we met Carlos! We talked to Carlos for a good hour about the restoration, bom, plan of salvation! He was super interested so we set a return apt for that night at the festival. We go and he's like an hour late. But he came!! And we found a recent convert to come to our lesson, then Carlos's high school friend was there who's getting ready to leave on a Mission so we dragged him along too! GUYSSSSS!!! Ahh that lesson was so powerful, he just kept saying this makes sense, that this was God's hand that we were able to meet! Everyone in that room needed to be there, it worked out perfect! We put him on date for the end of this month! God truly does know exactly what he's doing so it doesn't matter if we don't have no clue! LOL!

Sunday: I LOVE TESTIMONY MEETINGS!! Today was soo good! There were so many bomb testimonies and then we had a really good lesson after! After church we did some planning, then we watched the Christmas devotional which was amazing!!!!

Challenge: SMILE!!!! People recognize the light you have, they feel the difference! So choose to smile and laugh!  To quote ELF... "It's my favorite!" 

The One Where I Got Proposed To... LOL

 HOWDY YALLL!!!! Happy late turkey day! Love ya'll sooo much and I'm so grateful for all of you and the influence you've had on my life! This week was crazy haha! 

Monday: PDAYYYY!! We went and did hot chocolate and card games at the Moffatts, it was a party! Then we had dinner with a member and it was soo good! Then we went to fhe and we were a tad bit late haha but all the ysa gave us a standing ovation when we came in! It was way cool haha 

Tuesday:  UNPLANNED OPPORTUNITIES! Our district set a goal this week to hand out 75 boms! So me and sister Ritchie decided we would try to hand out 3- 5 per day! We didn't have tons of time to go finding and we were kinda sad but then we just decided we would do all our stuff out in public and put ourselves in situations where we could share the gospel with people! We were able to talk to a couple people at the library, we decided to start paying inside when we get gas so we can talk to the workers and we had some cool experiences with that! 

Wednesday: DISTRICT COUNCIL! We talked about teaching with the spirit and how vital it is! Here some people will just try to bash you, really the only thing you can do is bear your testimony and dip. Because if there's no contention the spirit is not there so there's no point in trying to teach them if they aren't willing to actually listen. We had lots of member calls and they were way good! Then we had Bible study with the Moffatts, it was so fun! 

Thursday: THANKSGIVING!! So fun!!! We got to talk to our family's and do lots of fun stuff for Thanksgiving! We went and volunteered at the homeless shelter and it was so good! These people are so cool! You can never judge someone by how they look. Some of the kindest people i've every met live there! Then we had dinner with a member, it was so good! We did a spiritual thought after and for part of it we watched the because of him video. One of the kids parents was reading the words to one of the little kids and at he goes "wow Jesus really did all that for us?" The spirit was so strong! 

Friday: MIRACLES! We saw so many miracles on Friday!! Finding in the ysa is pretty brutal haha! No one shows up to their appointments or everyone straight up ghosts you. We've been doing more member work though and it's finally starting to get going! Ahh I love our members they are soo cool! These people drive over an hour for church and all the activities!!! They are so devoted and are huge examples to me! One miracle from Friday is we were out finding at Walmart and we were getting discouraged because there were 0 ysa. Me and sis Ritchie without knowing it both said a silent prayer at the same time and when we turned the corner we saw a worker and felt like we needed to talk to him. Turns out he's roommates with one of our friends who's on date! He was way interested and were hopefully meeting with him this week!

Saturday: EXCHANGES! I got to be comps with Sister Jillian for the day, it was so fun!! I had a full circle moment because my 1st ever exchange was w/ her! Crazy how much time flies haha! We met some cool people and visited an inactive. Then we went to the Hermana's baptism, it was soo cool! The spirit was super strong! Then we had a couple lessons thats went way good!

Sunday: soo good! Also very interesting lol! As you can probably guess by the  title I got proposed to... by a 60/70 yr old (not even sure)  via letter saying he had a dream about us and he said he thought it meant we were supposed to get married... he tossed me the letter and said let me know SOON and dipped. let me tell you I was fighting demons trying not to cry laughing during the rest of sacrament meeting! The joys of being a sister missionary! The rest of church was BOMB though! 

Challenge: share your testimony with someone this week! It can be super simple and a lot easier than we think! Pray for opportunities to share and then act when those opportunities come!  As you're talking to people things will come to mind that you can tie into the gospel! Even if its just telling people that God loves them! Doing this will build your testimony so much! "A testimony is better built on the feet bearing it rather than on the knees praying for it"

                                                my first proposal... LOL in the cringiest way

4 MONTHS!!

 HOWDY YALLL!!!  The past 4 months have been some of the hardest, best, most rewarding months of my life! This week was sooo good! 

Monday: PDAYYYY!! We went to a family in the wards house and played tons of games! Sister Ritchie absolutely destroyed me in bumper pool 5x but it's okay because apparently I'm good at corn hole so it evens out lol!  Then we had dinner and a bomb lesson with our friend! And then IT SNOWED!!!!!! 

Tuesday: BRUTAL LOL...  we tried to contact lots of our inactives but not a single one answered we also both got sick and it was absolutely FREEZING!  But we left them all notes so hopefully one of them will respond to us!

Wednesday:SERVICE! There's something soo cool about this time of year! Lots of people are more willing to hear our message or are just kinder in general! We do service at the food pantry and homeless shelter each week and it's absolutely incredible to see how these people will have nothing but they give what they do have to God and others! They are so loving and they go out of they're way to make sure we're okay and feel loved it's amazing! I love those people so much and they have taught me what selfless service means. We got to help them prep food for Thanksgiving! It's crazy how much food that they give out! It's cool to watch people come in and volunteer and make donations! God is so good!!

Thursday: ZONE CONFERENCE! Lol I got humbled so I for some reason thought our zone conference was at 9:30 so me not wanting to be late decided we would be 20 minutes early and then do some calls! Welp psych, it was actually at 9 so that's embarrassing! Got to sit in the middle of the 2nd row so eye to eye with President lol! I felt awful but it's really on me for making my goal this week humility  besides that it was absolutely amazing!!! I always feel so hyped after zone conference! I learned to be bold! And the importance of inviting people to sacrament! Here's a quote from President about diligence " Christ knows how to fix broken things. In order for the healing to take place  there needs to be an alignment "

We call the week of zone conference holy week because the miracles just flow! Literally during lunch for zone conference our friend who we thought dropped off the face of the earth called us and asked to meet with us!!! And then we had 2 BOMB lessons it was amazing!

Friday: MIRACLES!!

Miracle 1: we had a really good member check in call w/ a member! 

Miracle 2: We were able to find a member to come to our lesson 

Miracle 3: our friend has a few learning disabilities but he biked 30 minutes in the 20° weather to hear our message! We didn't think he was going to come so we apologized to the member we had brought and started to walk back to our cars. We saw a guy across the street at the park and all of us felt like we needed to talk to him so we did! It was crazy because that member needed to be there to share some things, we needed to be there as well and that wouldn't have happened had it gone the way we had planned. Then our friend pulls up and we were able to teach him the restoration!  We showed him the 1st vision video and after he said wow that really did happen!  It was one of those days where your heart is just so full it feels like it's going to shatter! It made me think wow am I willing to bike in the frigid weather to hear about the Book of Mormon? Do I value it as much as he did? I feel like sometimes it's easy to take the knowledge we have for granted!  There are people who aren't as luck as we are! We need to treasure the Book of Mormon and share that with others! 

Saturday: MONETT!

We got to go to Monett for a baptism! It was a really neat experience! And then we went to our inactives in the area! None of them answered but we left them notes and then we felt prompted to leave a bom on a random door so we wrote our testimonies and marked all our favorite scriptures and left it there! We had lunch and dinner with some members and we met some cool people when we were out finding!

Sunday: BEST DAY EVER!!!! We as a zone set a goal to invite 100 people to sacrament this week! Friday we had felt like we needed to go to see an inactive at work! We did not want to because last time it was way awkward but we decided to do it anyway! GUYS! We had a 2 hour long conversation with him at work and we were only interrupted 1x! And we have gone through a lot of similar things! I was able to relate to him so well and share how gospel had helped me and how and why I know it's true! We testified of the atonement and showed him the because of him video, the spirit was so strong! He agreed to come to church & he did!!! It was amazing! We had 3 non members and 2 inactives at church which seems small but last week we had 0 and the week before 1 so that was huge! And then our recent convert made me bawl my eyes out for 10 minutes straight when she told me she wants to serve a mission! If she is the only thing that happens my whole mission I will be more than happy! I know she is going to change so many lives and I'm soo excited for her! Watching her grow has been amazing! She is such a huge example to me & I'm so grateful for her influence in my life! 

Challenge: go into your scripture study this week with a question! Ive done it this week and it's strengthened my testimony of the Book of Mormon so much!!!!

Toil for the Oil

 HOWDY YALLL!!! Holy cow being a missionary is both so exhausting and the most fun thing ever! I feel like I say this every week but this week was insane so sorry but I'm not gonna spellcheck this before I send it lol! But for real you know that feeling when you're so tired that after your prayer you debate sleeping on the floor? That's been me every day this week lol! But you couldn't pay me enough money to be doing anything else haha! 

Monday: PDAYYYY! GUYSSS I'm actually getting lowkey skilled at pickleball! Me and sister Ritchie demolished the district except for the Moffatts... they are still undefeated lol! 

Then we played lots of card games, it was a blast!

Tuesday: UNPLANNED OPPORTUNITIES! We had weekly planning and we decided to do it at the park so that we could find while doing weekly planning.  we ran into a guy that we had found awhile ago! We taught him the plan of salvation and it was super cool! We're not sure he was all the way there... lol but it was still cool to see how God will put people in our path if we ask and are willing to act! We also had a bomb lesson with our friend Wes and were able to put him on date! So everyone please pray for him!

Wednesday: BIBLE STUDY! We got to teach Bible study this week! But we didn't end up having time to plan it until 30 minutes before... but it ended up being sooo good! Guys the spirit is soo sick! It's crazy how thoughts will pop into your head or scriptures that tie to what you're talking about!  We also had district council Wednesday.  We talked al ot about godly fear vs worldly fear. It was so awesome and completely changed my perspective on faith and acting on promptings! Something that we did is we listed all the things that fall under worldly fear & godly fear and then they erased godly fear and replaced it with faith.. crazy! I had never looked at faith that way!  

Thursday: ...our car broke lol... no I didn't do anything to it.  the guy at the car place pretty much told us he has no clue what's wrong with it and it's probably just because the weather here has been wack so that's fun! We also got a rock chip fixed so we had lots of time to go through our records! it was actually cool tho because we met people at both car places and had cool convos with them! 

Friday: FINDING GRIND!! We did a full day of finding and meet some cool people on campus! Send us all you're finding ideas because we're having a hard time retaining people we find. We also did some member visits and it was way good!  Something that I'm starting to realize is that EVERYONE is struggling with something! No matter who it is... the relief society president, the stake president, the person who everyone thinks has their life together- that person is struggling. This life is a test its not supposed to be easy breezy, don't get me wrong it's amazing and so joyful, but we're here together to help each other! I'm thoroughly convinced that if we all took 1 hour each week to have a real and raw conversation with our ministering sister/ brother and took the time to genuinely get to know them and ask how their really doing. LISTEN, emphasize with them and share a message that is tailored to their personal needs and not just because it's our duty or calling. I think we'd have very few people in this church become inactive! It absolutely crushes me when we talk to inactives and they say that they felt like people didn't actually care or that they just talked to them because of their calling. People can tell if our hearts are in it. Do the people you minister to feel like just another statistic or are they treated like who they really are? A son or daughter of God and our brother or sister. Christ's brother or sister. 

Saturday: FINDING GRIND PT 2 + TRYING TO ORGANIZE RECORDS!

We went finding at the mall and met some elect people! It's so cool to see how God literally has the whole day planned already we just need to act on where he tells us to go! After we went finding we went through our records. PEOPLE PLEASE PLEASE PUT YOUR CONTACT INFORMATION IN YOUR RECORDS! Half the people in our records are married or don't exist so we went through and now we get to play detective and try to find them lol! It took us hours but we finally have the list sorted through! 

Sunday: CHURCH!!!

It is COLD here! Not like oh its winter and there's snow cold. Like it looks warm outside and you go out and you can't breathe kinda cold! The humidity do be brutal! But on the bright side church was sooo good! Sister Ritchie gave a talk and it was bomb! And we were able to talk to the members and the ward council and work with them more! Then we had our scripture study call tonight and it was way good! Sundays are for real the best!!! I love church! It's just such a good way to start off the week! 

Challenge: 

Toil for the oil! 

This is something that me and Sister Ritchie have had lots of convos about lately! In her talk on Sunday she talked about how her fam always says this and how it's something that it sooooo important especially in today's world! The phrase comes from the story of the 10 virgins. They needed oil to keep their lamps burning, to get oil you need to press lots of olives. And the darker the world the brighter we need our light to shine and the more oil we will need. So when we do the little things daily it keeps our lamps burning bright! Although in the story of the 10 virgins it talks about how we can't share our oil with others. We can share our testimonies with people. This builds our own testimonies/ light and it shows others where they can find their own oil!  Sooo your challenge this week is to pray for opportunities to share your testimony with someone and then act! The first person who comes to mind! It can be super simple and casual! Satan will try to make it seem scary but it's not! Look for the people God is putting in your path! I promise that he is putting people in your path that are prepared and are waiting for someone to share with them! 

Love ya'll! God bless! 

Funny Quote from Sister Ritchie this week "Your a fetching queen and daughter of a king" LOL

smiling actually is my favorite

love sister Ritchie 

our truck